The Village

Rating: * * (out of 5)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Running time: 108 minutes
Language: English
Opens Sept. 11
[See Japan Times movie listings]


Van Helsing

Rating: * * (out of 5)
Director: Stephen Sommers
Running time: 133 minutes
Language: English
Currently showing
[See Japan Times movie listings]

I've got to hand it to M. Night Shyamalan: His releases are always preceded by killer previews. Whether he can make a film that's half as good, however, is another matter.

His latest, "The Village" has a wicked little trailer that promises pure, crawl-under-your-seat terror. Come to think of it, so did his last flick, "Signs." But like that film, perhaps even more so, what we get is a movie that's strangely lacking in the fright department. Rule No. 1 of horror/suspense filmmaking: Your audience should never, ever, get to the climax and be left wondering, "Is that it?"

Despite what the trailers would have us think, Shyamalan's films are less scare-fests than exercises in the out-of-left-field, last-reel surprise. These are the sort of cheap tricks that can fuel a decent 25 minutes of "The Twilight Zone" or "Creepshow," but seem rather hard to sustain over a full two hours.

Our Planet

A street in Suttsu, Hokkaido, with a sign put up by an anti-nuclear organization. The small community is considering hosting a facility that would hold nuclear waste.
Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan